On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
trade were free . Will there be , for a length of time , as many sellers , outbidding each other for public favour , as it would be desirable should exist ? We doubt it- Still it is not possible that the press in this country can retrograde ; we may see a proof of the continued tendency towards progression in the
existing unstamped press . Advertisements are continually appearing of new twopenny newspapers , professing to contain better information , or to be printed on a larger sheet , than any other newspaper of the same price . Mr . Wakley proposes to give compensation to the proprietors of stamped newspapers for any injury their property may sustain , by the abolition of the duty . We regret the question should be embarrassed by such a proposition . It must be
rejected on two grounds . First ; no class of capitalists can be allowed to claim a vested right in the continuance of a public tax ; and , secondly , there is yet no case made out that the proprietors of stamped journals would be losers by the change . The people of the Times , and Chronicle , say they would be gainers . We will take them at their word . If the fact should be so , they have no claim for compensation ; if only a hypocritical pretence for opposing the freedom of the press , they
deserve to lose . One thing is certain ; no journal that chooses to be honest will suffer by the change . The price of advertisements will be reduced by the competition , but the circulation which will be attained by popular liberal journals , will be a sufficient recompense for this diminution of their profits .
Another statement made by the pamphleteers in favor of a penny stamp , is , the utter impossibility , according to these gentlemen ( and the Chancellor of the Exchequer adopts the same opinion ) , of making arrangements for receiving , and sorting , double the number of newspapers now circulated b y post , if a halfpenny or a penny were to be paid with eacn newspaper . We remember when it was urged on Mr . Spring Rice that a considerable revenue might be derived from a
penny postage , his answer was that it would produce little or nothing , because payment of the penny would be avoided by cheaper agencies than the post-office , and that newspapers would be forwarded to all the large towns by coach . This
argument was so far solid , that the calculations of gain to the revenue , from this source , have generally proceeded upon the supposition , that the number sent through the post-office ( even if the stamp were abolished ) would not be increased for years to come , and that the sum they would produce would be only 100 , 000 / , Now , however , by the advice of his ill-judging friends , Mr . Spring Rice is induced to reverse his former position . We are now told the number of penny pieces brought to the post-office would be so great , that St . Martin ' s-
Untitled Article
362 Moral Interest * qf the Productive Classes .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/70/
-